Feed in the Present?

We're getting closer to the Feed!  Check this out:

Netflix has created "Mindflix"

So much of Feed feels eerily prescient, as we know it was written in 2002, before smartphones and so many other technological advances we use today.  I'm looking forward to our discussion today and to your analyses of advertisements and your first attempts at subvertisements!  The more we analyze and critique information, the further we stay away from a Feed-like life. :)

Eleanor & Park: 80s Pop Culture

Rainbow Rowell, author of Eleanor & Park, intermixes lots of 80s culture in her writing of the YA novel.  Indie/Post-Punk/Alternative Rock bands like the Smiths, Husker Du, U2 are important to Park and Eleanor's relationship. Songs like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJRP3LRcUFg

They also bond over comics like X-men and Watchmen:




The importance of music and pop culture reminds me of how I bonded over music, favorite books, TV shows, and movies when I was in high school.  How about you?  What music was most important to you? Did your friends love that music as well? Did you often talk about your favorite shows or movies?

Why do you think Rowell includes so much of this in her novel?  Do you think Eleanor and Park's relationship develops pretty naturally? Is it believable to you? We'll be considering these questions and many more--this is such a rich book for discussion!  I look forward to our class discussions.

Our Class

This ENGL 1100 course is focusing on young adult literature, critical youth studies, and important issues connecting the literature we read for the course with our lives and the world we live in.  We will discuss further critical youth studies and what that field of study entails in class.  One of our course objectives is that the students will create their own blogs on which they will post responses to our course readings, discussions, and other activities--with the expectation that they will also read their classmates' blog posts and comment on them--and I will link their blogs to this one.  More information on these expectations can be found in the course syllabus.

I'm excited for our semester together and look forward to learning about and with all of my students!